Home → What our filters remove
What actually comes out of your water.
Customers asked, so here it is in plain English — what is in Sydney tap water, what each of our systems removes, and just as importantly, what they do not.
First, the honest bit
Sydney tap water is already safe. That is not the point.
Sydney Water meets the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What a good filter does is remove the things those guidelines still allow — the chlorine and fluoride added on purpose, the rust and sediment picked up from ageing mains and household pipes, and the dissolved metals, minerals and PFAS that ordinary jug filters cannot touch.
- Chlorine — added by Sydney Water to inactivate microorganisms. Safe, but it is why tap water can smell and taste like a swimming pool.
- Fluoride — added on the recommendation of NSW Health for dental health. Some families simply prefer to choose their own fluoride intake.
- Rust and sediment — sand, silt and iron from mains work and older pipework. That is the orange staining in some sinks.
- Lead and heavy metals — usually picked up inside the home from older plumbing, solder and brass fittings rather than from the supply itself.
- Dissolved solids (TDS) — the natural minerals behind kettle scale and flat-tasting water.
- PFAS and PFOS — the “forever chemicals” that turn up in trace testing. Jug filters do not touch these; the Matrikx carbon block in our whole-house systems reduces them by around 95%, and reverse osmosis strips them out altogether.
- Microplastics and VOCs — tiny plastic fragments and volatile organic compounds, caught by physical and carbon filtration.
Sources: Sydney Water — safe drinking water · Australian Government — fluoride in water
The full table
Which system removes what.
| What is in the water | 3 Stage Under-Sink $299 | 6 Stage Reverse Osmosis from $649 | Whole House 3-Stage $2,599 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chlorine, taste and odour | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sediment, rust, sand and dirt | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pesticides, herbicides and VOCs | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Microplastics | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Chloramine and disinfection by-products | Reduced | ✓ | ✓ 83%+ (catalytic carbon) |
| Lead, arsenic and other heavy metals | — | ✓ up to 99% | — |
| Fluoride | — | ✓ 90–97% | — |
| PFAS / PFOS (“forever chemicals”) | — | ✓ | ✓ reduces ~95% (Matrikx carbon block) |
| Bacteria and viruses | — | ✓ 0.0001 μm membrane | — |
| Nitrates | — | ✓ | — |
| Dissolved solids, hardness and scale (TDS) | — | ✓ 95–99% | — |
| Calcium and magnesium added back | — | ✓ remineraliser stage | — |
Removal rates follow the Ecosoft manufacturer's specifications and typical performance of each media type. Real results depend on your incoming water and on cartridges being changed on schedule — that is the $199 annual service (or $250 for whole house), not an upsell.
Stage by stage
What each stage of a 6-stage reverse osmosis actually does.
1 — Sediment, 5 micron
A polypropylene shield that catches sand, rust flakes, silt and dirt before they reach anything expensive. This is the cartridge that turns orange telling you it is doing its job.
2 — Granular activated carbon
Adsorbs chlorine and organic chemicals. This is where the pool smell and chemical taste disappear.
3 — Carbon block
The finer wash: remaining chlorine, chloramine, pesticides, herbicides and VOCs. It also protects the membrane behind it — chlorine slowly destroys RO membranes.
4 — Reverse osmosis membrane, 0.0001 micron
The workhorse. With pores roughly 200 times finer than a virus, it holds back up to 99% of dissolved solids, fluoride, lead, arsenic and other heavy metals, nitrates, PFAS and PFOS, bacteria, viruses and microplastics. Carbon alone can never do this.
5 — Post-carbon polish
A final activated-carbon pass as the water leaves the tank, so it arrives at the glass tasting clean rather than stored.
6 — Remineraliser
RO takes out the good minerals with the bad, which is what makes un-remineralised RO water taste flat. This stage puts calcium and magnesium back. The Alkafuse version enriches with magnesium for alkaline water at pH 9 or pH 10.
See the systems and installed prices · Is Sydney tap water safe? Read the guide
Same membrane, different finish
Standard, Balance or Alkafuse?
All three of our six-stage reverse osmosis systems share the same membrane, so the removal power is identical — up to 99.8% of dissolved impurities and up to 99% PFAS reduction. The difference is stage 6, the finishing cartridge, and what your glass tastes like at the end. These figures come straight from Ecosoft's own specifications.
- Standard PRO ($649) — coconut-carbon remineraliser that adds calcium and magnesium back, so the water tastes like water, not nothing. No deliberate pH change.
- Balance ($849) — consistent mineralisation with 10–15 ppm calcium and 4–6 ppm magnesium, holding 60–80 ppm total minerals at a balanced pH 7–8.5.
- Alkafuse Alkaline ($849) — magnesium-enriched Alkafuse cartridge for alkaline water at pH 9–10, with 60–120 ppm of minerals added back.
Specifications via Ecosoft PURE Balance and Ecosoft PURE Alkafuse product pages.
Honesty, continued
What no filter can claim.
- A 3-stage carbon system — ours or anyone's — does not remove fluoride, PFAS, lead or dissolved solids. Anyone who tells you a carbon jug removes PFAS is selling you something.
- Whole-house filtration keeps chlorine, rust and sediment out of every tap and shower — and its Matrikx carbon block cuts PFAS by around 95% across the whole home. What it doesn't do is fluoride, lead or dissolved solids — that still needs the kitchen RO, which is why most whole-house customers pair the two.
- Every removal figure above assumes fresh cartridges. A two-year-old carbon cartridge is decoration. We change them on schedule and we do not pad the price — $199 under-sink, $250 whole house, once a year.
Ready for better water?
Tell us your suburb and which tap you want filtered. You get a fixed price before anyone comes out, and our 6-stage reverse osmosis systems carry a lifetime warranty kept active with regular servicing.